Education reporter

A pair of debaters on the University of Georgia campus looked Tuesday for common ground on gun control, but found little.

The debate drew a disappointing turnout of about 50 people in a room in UGA’s Tate Student Center.

Kathryn Grant of Gun Free Kids warned the audience of the unintended consequences of House Bill 512, now pending in the Georgia Legislature. The legislation would allow concealed weapons on college campuses, bars, churches, synagogues and even post offices, she said.

“Where is the common ground on an issue like guns on campus?” Grant asked.

Grant asked anyone in the audience who thought it OK for people to carry concealed guns in bars to raise their hands. No one did in the group — a mix of students, UGA faculty and staff, and Athens area residents.

Richard Feldman of the Independent Firearms Association said he has mixed feelings about allowing guns on campus. But the real issue is not guns, which are just tools, he said, but keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the deranged.

“The problem is the people we don’t want to have guns are the ones that have them,” Feldman said in the Tuesday evening debate.

“Why do we focus on guns instead of in whose hands are the guns?” Feldman asked. “This issue is not about guns. This issue is about trust in government.”

Feldman said he would favor stricter control on sales at gun shows, but requiring background checks not currently required in Georgia won’t solve the problem of guns getting in the wrong hands, he said.

Criminals steal half a million guns a year, he said.

The mother of Adam Lanza, the shooter who killed 20 children and six adults in December at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, violated one of the basic tenets of gun safety, which is to keep her guns secure, said Feldman.

The advocate recommended more gun education and perhaps even tax credits for gun safe purchases. He noted he keeps his 162 guns in safes.

According to Grant, research has shown that some 40 percent of the privately-owned guns in the world are in the United States. And there is no evidence to back up claims by pro-gun lobbyists that better gun control won’t reduce violence, she said.

Half of mass shootings are in homes and a third of those in public are in places where there are no restrictions on carrying guns, she said.

We should focus more on the connection between drugs and violence, Feldman said, noting half of gun violence is associated with the illegal drug trade. We should be talking about legalizing drugs as part of the violence debate, he said.

Feldman said he hoped the audience would leave with a sense that the gun control issue is more complicated than they initially considered.

“When politicians say they have a commonsense solution, you should worry,” he said.